What's On Your Mind?: Kohler golf course; Sheboygan marina damage

Tax Day arrives tomorrow, and the working/middle class pay too much while the wealthiest (including corporations, since Citizen's United v. FEC declared they're people) pay little or nothing at all.

Negative responses to this submission will be from the usual suspects, decrying that I want to take away money from super-wealthy "hard workers." I do. None of the right-wingers on this page or online make anything close to what the billionaires make, but the fawning, slack-jawed right herein will defend the rich's right to hide income, cheat on their taxes and generally steal from the very system that enriched them. Republicans, including those in this feature or in our community generally, will defend the super-wealthy's right to hide their income in tax havens like the Cayman Islands or Switzerland, so that they pay almost nothing in actual, honest American income taxes.

Taxes are not evil. Paying taxes is patriotic. All of the right-wing flag-wavers need to understand that without their fair share of taxes, there'd be no flag to wave. Those who cheat to avoid their taxes are unpatriotic, un-American. Any true, loyal American citizen should be proud to pay his or her taxes to support the society and government that gave all of us the greatest country on earth.

David Henning

Sheboygan

State's right

As Washington lurches from one self-induced crisis to another, our state is quietly taking care of business. In Washington our Senate won't pass a budget, much less balance one. Our president promises more unaffordable free lunches at home while tyrants eat our lunch abroad, and the fed uses our credit card to "bail out" banks, domestic and foreign.

In contrast, our state lawmakers have passed and balanced a budget, reduced taxes, streamlined regulation, and begun torte reform. I was concerned about the number of retirements among our state lawmakers who had the moxie to challenge the status quo to turn this state around, but the excellent candidates answering the call to run suggest that the positive momentum will continue. Today Wisconsin; tomorrow Washington.

Art DeJong

Sheboygan

Preserve the woods

The Kohler Woods are an incomparable natural treasure, valuable on a scale that transcends economic or recreational value. By way of comparison, the Point Creek area, in Manitowoc County, equivalent only in size and shoreline expanse, which the local land conservancy purchased (expensively) for preservation, had been cut over and planted with a pine plantation of vastly less ecological worth.

Destroying the natural character of the Kohler Woods for the sake of a golf course, no matter how well designed, would be a tragic and irreparable mistake, in my opinion. Preserving them in perpetuity, should Herb Kohler see fit, would long honor his name.

James Tobin

Town of Wilson

Long overdue

A long overdue hike in the minimum wage from the current $7.25 to the proposed $10.10 per hour will not harm the economy. Indeed, it will increase demand by funneling more money into the hands of people who will immediately use it to buy such luxuries as food, shelter, fuel, etc. The "prices will rise" excuse is way overplayed - typical restaurant prices have been shown to rise only 7/10th of 1 percent in states that enacted their own minimum wage increase.

No employer is going to lay off workers if there is customer demand - that is a threat wielded by the lobbyists hired by the currently content businesses that are comfortable knowing that many of their employees rely on food stamp and other assistance programs. These employers are the real "welfare queens." The only thing that will be affected by a minimum wage increase is the obscene level of profits, bonuses, and compensation packages now routinely handed out to the executives of these firms.

It is time to end public assistance to firms who will not pay their employees enough to afford a basic lifestyle. Greed is an addiction that they have shown they cannot overcome. We need politicians with enough spine to stand up and right this wrong.

Mark Briese

Sheboygan

Bid the project

On April 7, a special council meeting was held for the purpose of transfer of funds to pay for an estimated $100,000 expense to repair winter damage to the marina docks. This was not put out for bids. How do we know if more or less is needed?

A project of this amount should be made bidding competitive to protect taxpayer dollars. The marina has been a drain on the city coffers since day one. The powers that be at that time told us it would be self supporting in four years. That obviously has not been the case.

Jack Wirtz

Sheboygan

Amusing speech

I was amused by a story that I received about an address to students in a high school by Mr. Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. He talked about how feel-good, politically correct teachings have created a generation of kids with no concept of reality, and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. Some of the things he told them were: "Life is not fair, get used to it.

"The world doesn't care about your self-esteem...

"If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss...

"Television is not real life...

"Be nice to nerds, chances area you'll end up working for one..."

Norman Veldboom

Oostburg

Overwhelming

Every species has the innate potential to reproduce enough offspring to overwhelm the planet. In nature, that profligacy becomes food for other species: animals are nourished by eating seeds from trees and plants, eating the babies of insects, bugs, birds, mammals; some kill their offspring when they produce more than they can care for.

Humans, too, have the capacity to overwhelm the planet: every human female is born with almost half a million unfertilized eggs in her body. Women used to be pregnant from adolescence to death. Fortunately, compassionate and intelligent humans are learning to manage reproduction, because nurturing the complex work of art that is a child is the most serious responsibility on earth, requiring years of intelligent and compassionate preparation, thought, commitment.

Genevieve Beenen

Sheboygan

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What's On Your Mind?: Kohler golf course; Sheboygan marina damage

Tax Day arrives tomorrow, and the working/middle class pay too much while the wealthiest (including corporations, since Citizen's United v. FEC declared they're people) pay little or nothing at all.

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